With the US median wage at $5,000 a year, New Yorkers spent 1/10 of their salaries on rent [in the 1950s]...These days a depressing number of young New Yorkers spend over half their income on housing. Rent hikes have transformed a once-democratic city into a playground for the privileged. — The Los Angeles Review of Books
Don't adjust for inflation: it will just depress you. This article in The Los Angeles Review of Books historically traces the drastic rise of housing costs for renters from the middle of the 20th century to the present day through a series of inflation adjustments, edgy banking moves, and the morphing shape of the economy.
For more on this topic:
• A little reminder that U.S. rent affordability is at its worst, according to Zillow
• Shipping container village crops up in Oakland, offering alternative to sky-high SF rents
3 Comments
World population had tripled since then. The downside of decrease infant mortality and increase longevity - all resources is and will be more expensive.
all your base is and will belong to us
wow, how is it possible there were even poor people back then?
I think the statistics shown are probably misleading though. It's comparing rents in Manhattan to incomes across the USA. I'm going to guess that the shift from an industrial port to a center of the finance industry has led to a much more dramatic change in incomes in Manhattan than across the entire country.
Not to say that's a good thing - but at least the outcome makes some sense that way.
I'd be very interested to see a study like this across the US as a whole, or a selection of urban areas larger than just Manhattan. Have any gotten cheaper?
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